Storm At Sea Sashings

Those Storm At Sea Sashings!

I've had so many requests from people who want to set their Dear Jane quilts this way, that I've decided to spill my guts on it! Paper piecing is my friend. I paper pieced the sashings and cornerstones by altering the sizes of blocks using the Dear Jane CD. You can print your own templates from the CD. If you don't have the CD....get it!

To print out the sashings for the storm at sea setting, go into the CD..(this is your job, to get yourself familiar with it!)

• From the home page on the CD, Click the icon on the left side of the page that says "Print the Patterns".
• At the top of the tool bar click "Libraries"
• Click "Block Libraries" A screen will open up.

In the left menu section of the screen click the dear jane blocks icon and a menu will drop down.

• Click libraries again if it appears, and if the whole thing opens up, click "Good for alternate blocks"
• Double Click "Square in a Square"
  

The first block you want is the first one you see in the upper left corner, the simple square in a square, also called "Triangle Design'. This will become the rectangle sashing.

• Highlight the block by clicking on it. It will get a green box around it to show it is highlighted.
• Hit COPY at the bottom of the screen.

Now the other one you want is the square in a square in a square (called Economy Patch) that is right below the 'Triangle Design' one. This is the cornerstone block.

• Highlight that by clicking on it.
  
• Hit copy again.

The blocks are now saved to your sketchbook.

• Click close at the bottom of the little block library screen to close it.

To get into your sketchbook to edit them:

• Click on View at the top menu of the page.
• Select SKETCHBOOK.
  

(You can also choose the little red binder icon in the tool bar, that is also open sketchbook)

A little screen will pop up with the blocks you have chosen in it.

• Click the first one, Triangle Design, so it is highlighted.
  
• Click EDIT.

The block will appear in the editing screen.

• Click on the printer icon in the tool bar at the top.
• Click "Print Block."

(you can choose "foundation pattern", but I paper piece without the printed seam allowance, and can fit more on a paper this way.)

A little screen will come up where you can change the block size.

• Change the size of the WIDTH to 2.0.
• The length stays the same. (4.5)

Remember, these are the FINISHED sizes of the blocks/sashings, seam allowance won't be included.

Now click on the options tab at the top of the little screen.

• Click the radial button for "print as many as fit".
  

You should be able to get 6 per page without the seam allowance added around the outside of the sashing rectangle.

• You can check how it will print by clicking "preview".
• Print.

For the "Economy Patch" cornerstone, follow the above procedure. When you click on the printer, and the screen opens up to change the size:

• Change both the width and the length to 2.0.

You should be able to print 12 cornerstone blocks on one page.

If you want to do regular piecing, you can choose the 'print templates' option instead of the 'print block' option.

I find these are easier to paper piece because of the size, and because the angle isn't a true 60 degree angle. The sashing rectangle block is more than twice the width in length, and that makes the angle a weird long tapered thing to deal with, and impossible to cut with just a rotory cutter and ruler.

Paper piecing is the best solution to this for me!